Boat Building Forum

Find advice on all aspects of building your own kayak, canoe or any lightweight boats

I was born in Melbourne, Australia and was an active racing yachtsman starting in 8' sabot dinghies age 13 and continuing sailing larger dinghies, 505's and small cruisers (23' Juno) and a beautiful 22 square metre racing yacht (38') until the expense of owning and racing a light displacement, chine, plywood 35' ocean racer became too much by my late-forties and I changed to bicycle touring.

Since 1969 I have lived in Western Australia. Retired from Engineering and the city to the country in 1985 to farm and breed alpacas, stud sheep and a few cattle. Retired properly in 2003 and moved to Mandurah 80km south of the W.A. capital Perth. Live very close to a huge 137 square km 2m deep (a.k.a shallow choppy) estuary and took up kayaking in 2009.

First kayak was a Prijon Touryak 470 but in 2012 built a very much lighter YOST Sea Cruiser SoF with minor modifications to accommodate my 73 year old 1853mm x 90 kg frame carrying 2 replacement hips which somewhat restricts cowboy entries ! "Carved" a lightweight Western Red Cedar GP with tung oil finish - it is a joy to paddle with and easier on the shoulders than the previous "euro" style carbon shaft/plastic blade commercial paddle at 4 times the cost and twice the weight.

Email : mcbunny09@gmail.com